December 7
At 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings, appears out of the clouds above the island of Oahu. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes follow and descends on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack struck a critical blow against the U.S. Pacific fleet and drew the United States irrevocably into World War II. – 1941.
Two earthquakes hit Armenia and kill 60,000 persons and destroy nearly 500,000 buildings. – 1988.
December 8
A fire at the Ring Theater in Vienna, Austria, kills between 620 and 850 individuals and injures hundreds more when a stagehand lighted a row of gas lights, but inadvertently ignited some prop clouds over the stage. The stage managers panicked and shut off the gas which turned off the lights in the theater and the situation dissolved into chaos. – 1881.
The Chicago Bears trounce the Washington Redskins in the National Football League championship game by a score of 73-0, the largest margin in NFL history. – 1940.
As America’s Pacific fleet lay in ruins at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, president Franklin Roosevelt requests, and receives, a declaration of war from the U.S. Congress against Japan. – 1941.
John Lennon, a former member of the Beatles, is shot and killed by an obsessed fan in New York City. – 1980.
At a summit meeting in Washington, D.C., president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign the first treaty between the two superpowers to reduce their massive nuclear arsenals. -1987.
President Bill Clinton signs The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA, a trade pact among the United States, Canada, and Mexico, eliminates virtually all tariffs and trade restrictions among the three nations. – 1993.
December 9
On this day, 1,800 United States Marines arrive in Mogadishu, Somalia, to spearhead a multinational force aimed at restoring order in the conflict-ridden country. – 1992.
December 10
The first Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. – 1901.
International Human Rights Day, commemorating the signing at the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, in part: “Everyone has the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests.” – 1948.
December 11
In the aftermath of World War II, the General Assembly of the United Nations votes to establish the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), an organization to help provide relief and support to children living in countries devastated by the war. – 1946.
Ten days after an Illinois State mine inspector approved coal dust removal techniques at New Orient Mine in Downstate West Frankfort the mine explodes, largely because of coal dust accumulation and kills 119 workers. – 1951.
Forty thousand workers go on general strike in London, Ontario, Canada, a city with a population of 300,000, in protest of cuts in social services. – 1995.
December 12
More than two years after it was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece The Mona Lisa is recovered inside Italian waiter Vincenzo Peruggia’s hotel room in Florence. Peruggia previously had worked at the Louvre and had participated in the heist with a group of accomplices dressed as Louvre janitors on the morning of August 21, 1911. – 1913.
December 13
During the Sino-Japanese War, Nanking, the capital of China, falls to Japanese forces, and the Chinese government flees. To break the spirit of Chinese resistance the Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male so-called war prisoners, massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process. – 1937.
U.S. vice president Al Gore reluctantly concedes defeat to Texas governor George W. Bush in his bid for the presidency, following weeks of legal battles over the recounting of votes in Florida. Gore had won the national popular vote by more than 500,000 votes, but narrowly lost Florida to give the Electoral College to Bush, 271 to 266. – 2000.
After spending nine months on the run, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is captured. He had controlled the country for more than 20 years. – 2003.